Chicken Koftas With Cucumbers And Yogurt

I'm still on a mission to try out new recipes that I've clipped for my recipe binder.  On Sunday, I asked Bret to pick something for me to make for Monday night's dinner and he selected an Everyday Food (June 2011) recipe for Chicken Koftas with Cucumbers and Yogurt.

First, I gathered my ingredients:

The red pepper flakes didn't make it it into the photo - oops!

• 1 1/4 pounds ground chicken
• 1/2 yellow onion, roughly chopped (the original recipe calls for white onion, diced small)
• 1/3 cup chopped fresh parsley leaves
• Coarse salt and ground pepper
• 1/2 teaspoon red pepper flakes (optional)
• 1 1/3 cups cucumber, diced large (I used several mini cucumbers)
• 1/2 cup plain Greek yogurt
• 2 tablespoons vegetable oil
• 2 medium tomatoes, cut into 1/4-inch slices
• 4 pitas
• 1/2 cup fresh mint leaves, for serving (I omitted the mint)

I started by turning the oven on to 200 degrees.  Once heated, I threw two pitas in the oven directly on the oven racks to warm them up.

Then, in a large bowl, I combined the chicken, onion, parsley and red pepper flakes.  I seasoned the chicken mixture with salt and pepper.

I formed eight burger-like patties from the chicken mixture.

In a medium bowl, I mixed together the chopped cucumber and yogurt, and also seasoned with salt and pepper.  I put the yogurt mixture in the fridge while I cooked the koftas.

In a large skillet, I warmed up the oil over medium-high. I cooked the patties until browned on all sides and cooked through.  I did this in two batches and five minutes per side for a total of twenty minutes.  I kept the first four koftas warm in the oven while I cooked the remaining four.

I served the chicken kofta on a pita with slices of tomato and topped with the cucumber-yogurt sauce.

This dish was super easy to make and an even healthier version of a traditional lamb kofta.  Even though the recipe used ground chicken, it still had a lot of flavor and was very juicy.  I loved that this dish was pretty healthy, and yet we both felt completely satisfied because it didn't sacrifice any flavor.  In fact, we were  stuffed from this meal

Thanks, Bret, for the hand-modeling!

Tell me, what healthy recipes have you been cooking up in your kitchen lately?